Overview
7 product ratings - Triple Play 98 (Sony PlayStation 1, 1997) Ps1 CIB Tested FREE SHIPPING. FAST 'N FREE. Or Best Offer. Guaranteed by Tue, Jun. Vintage Triple Play 97 - PC GAME - WINDOWS 95 MS-DOS unused See more like this. Brand New Sealed Triple Play 97 Brand New Sealed PS1 Playstation 1 Collectors.
Here I was, sitting at my desk on a crisp March afternoon just minding my own business. I was not bothering anyone, nor was I expecting much excitement for the remainder of the afternoon. Maybe go over some press releases or check the Internet for some new info on upcoming titles. Mr. US Postal Worker was running behind schedule (not that I am complaining... nice postal worker) so the mail had not yet arrived. Just as I was thinking that the mail was not going to come, there it was. And what was this? A package from EA Sports? I was not expecting anything from them for at least a month. What could it be? To my delight, I found inside that package Triple Play 99! It looked as if my afternoon might be perking up after all.
If you are a devoted GameAbandonware reader, you should know by now my love for baseball games. You should also be aware of my disappointment that the PSX has given me when it comes to quality baseball titles. There were plenty available last year and each and every one of them failed to live up to my expectations. I have been waiting for the day to come when the 2nd and 3rd generation baseball games start rolling in. The day has finally arrived.
Gameplay
You may have noticed that I scored this game exactly as last years offering, Triple Play 98. Does that mean that this game is exactly the same as last year? Definitely not. Actually, the game has really taken some amazing strides forward. Then why the same score? Because while it has taken a step forward in some areas, the game has taken two steps back in others. Read on and I'll explain.
In TP 98, I had a bitch of a time maneuvering through the menu system. Invariably, I would push the wrong button and have to start trying to set the game up again. It usually took at least two times before I hit the right combination of buttons, selected my team, and started playing. TP 99 has a completely revamped menu system making game setup a snap. Everything is easy to access, and starting a game is as simple as a single button push. Once you get the feel for it, the advanced options and stats are also easy to access, as well as manipulate.
Another thing that the Triple Play franchise continues to improve between versions is the stadium design, sounds, and atmosphere. This year is no exception. It is amazing how true to life the ballparks look. Being from Seattle, I went straight to the Kingdome. Everything from the dimensions, to the layout, to the colors, to the aisle-ways looked perfect. You could tell that a tremendous amount of time was spent on creating the stadiums and trying to model them as closely to real life as possible. Along with the stadiums, the general atmosphere has been upgraded. The home fans will boo when the ump calls a ball on a close pitch. When your star player comes up to bat, the crowd cheers. When your pitcher is getting rocked, a fan yells 'come on, Mariners' or whatever team you are playing as. All in all, you will feel like you have a real crowd watching the game. I do have one question though: If EA Sports put so much time in making the stadiums realistic, why did they not include the fireworks after homeruns? I have been to a bunch of different stadiums and watched a lot of baseball on TV and it seems like at least half of the teams have some sort of fireworks display after a homerun. I can't help but think this would have been an easy addition that would have made the atmosphere complete. Oh well, maybe next year.
Great, so the game is easy to start and the atmosphere is good, but how does it play? The answer is a resounding... good and bad. The overall feel of the game and about 95 percent of the gameplay is great. The game is presented in a TV style format. This means that the camera angles are always switching to give you the best possible view. This game is definitely the best I have seen in a baseball game at changing the angles to prudent locations. A problem that has plagued other games in the past is that the camera would occasionally get confused and not pick the best angle for viewing the play. I never had that problem here. Along the same lines of the angles, you can custom pick your view point as a batter. The game is boasting a first person perspective, which is very cool except that I could never get the hang of it. It feels like nothing you have ever tried before in a baseball game. Like I said, I never did quite get the feeling for it, but it is cool nonetheless.
As far as the basics go, hitting, pitching, and fielding are all relatively simple. You have your standard controls for all of these which are very easy to use. Where the game really shines is in the little extras. You can easily climb the wall to steal away a homerun, which you don't realize how cool it is until you actually do it. Also, a lot of time was put into the detail and realism of the fielding. A double play ball may have the shortstop throwing off his back foot to the second basement who then jumps to avoid the sliding runner and the first baseman stretches to scoop the low throw. That is all pretty standard stuff in real baseball, but it's never before been captured—until now.
One last thing on the positive 95 percent. A major complaint that I had with the original was that it was too easy to hit a homerun. Boy, did they fix that problem. Depending on the skill level you chose, homeruns are not an every at bat occurrence. On the lower skill levels, you may hit more but on the higher skill levels, it is tough. I mean real tough.
But as long as we are talking about skill levels, let me get into the 5 percent of the game that had its negatives. My first complaint was in the skill level department. The game had four different skill levels ranging from beginner to all star. The problem I had was that on beginner and Rookie, the computer does the fielding for you and the pitching is not as good. As soon as you crank it up one level to pro, you are on your own to do everything. You had no fielding help and the pitching was downright tough. To give you an example, I was playing the game on Rookie, just to get a feel for things. I proceeded to kick the crap out of the team I was playing. No problem, I will move up a level to pro. Now, not only could I not get any hits (2 in nine innings), I was getting the crap kicked out of me because I had to learn how to manually field the ball. My point is that it would have been much better to be able to select difficulty for each category so everything was not thrown in your face at once. It would have been cool to be able to keep the pitching at a rookie level but change the fielding to manual. That way I would be able to concentrate on my fielding and not worry if I misjudged a fly ball because I knew I would have a chance to get the run back. On the pro setting, I never felt like I had a chance to get back into the game.
I know that the skill level thing was fairly trivial, but not my next complaint. Not only is this not trivial, it is almost inexcusable. This problem alone is why the score got knocked down at least 15 points. If a batter hits a hard single to an outfielder (left, center and occasionally right) the outfielder can throw the runner out at first. Yeah, you read that right. On a sharp grounder to an outfielder, there is a good chance you can throw the runner out at first. Give me a break! This was a problem on Atari Baseball on my Atari 400 computer. It was also a problem on a first generation NES game I used to play. Come on, this is a third generation PSX title, for crying out loud. How in the hell does this make it into a game today? I mean, this game does such an excellent job of making you believe you're at the ballpark. The players look good, the stadiums look good and the game screams realistic simulation. Then they go and do this. To me, this is the equivalent of a money play in Madden football. You know the ones--the play that you can always rip off a huge gainer. Most people who have any videogame credibility or integrity will usually go on good faith not to run these plays. This is the same thing in TP 99. You had to make a conscious effort not to throw the ball to first base. It is almost like cheating. I thought this was lame on the Atari. I thought this was lame on the NES. I REALLY think this bites the big one in a PSX game.
Another minor thing that bothered me about the game was an obvious bug that made it into the production copy of the game. Let's say you are pitching to a switch hitter. Your pitcher is right handed so the batter is batting left handed, which means he is on the left side of the plate. Before throwing a single pitch, you decide to bring in a relief pitcher that is left handed. You would expect the batter to change over to the right side of the plate, correct? Well, the batter does in fact move to the other side of the plate. The problem is that the batter is now in the right handed batters box but he is still facing left! That means he is facing off the screen with his back directly to the plate. Huh? He will still swing at a ball over the plate and make contact even though his bat is swinging on the opposite side of the screen but come on. This is a third generation title from a company that strives and thrives on quality sports games. How does this make it past the testers?
Graphics
Graphically, TP 99 is excellent. The players are all made of polygons and they look pretty realistic. Little guys are now little and big guys are now big. Players with facial hair have facial hair and so on. The TV style presentation works great, and you will feel like you are watching a ball game on the tube. The stadiums were also incredible with an enormous amount of detail spent on each and every park.
Bottom Line
If you can get past the glitches and oversights, this is a fun game to play. I really enjoy the realistic look and feel of the game. I wish that EA had waited a few more weeks to put this game out and fixed the little things that managed to sneak through the cracks. If you are starving for a new baseball game before the real season gets underway, this will be your only choice. All in all, you should be satisfied to a certain degree.
Overall rating: 7